Louvre's 'Les choses' Explores Still Life from Prehistory to Present

The Louvre in Paris presents 'Les choses. Une histoire de la nature morte', a major survey of still life running until January 23. Curated by Laurence Bertrand Dorléac with Thibault Boulvin and Dimitri Salmon after seven years of research, the exhibition assembles 170 works from Prehistory to the 21st century across 15 sections. It aims to create a continuous dialogue between ancient and contemporary art, expanding the genre's geographical, chronological, and artistic boundaries. The show opens with a dialogue between Georges de La Tour's 'La Madeleine à la veilleuse' (1642-44) and 1st-century fresco fragments from Herculaneum. Highlights include works by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Rembrandt, Goya, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Gerhard Richter, Magritte, and Robert Gober. The final section on 'metamorphosis' is criticized for omissions such as Berlinde De Bruyckere, Damien Hirst, and Anselm Kiefer. Critic Ludovico Pratesi notes the curatorial project privileges historical art, questioning the placement of Barthélémy Toguo's 'Le Pilier des migrants disparus' (2022) at the Louvre entrance.